Newsletter-162-August-1984

Newsletter 162:
August, 1984

HADAS DIARY

Sat Aug 18. Repton Derbyshire - our last day-trip this summer. Colin Ditching of
the Repton Village History Group will meet the coach as it leaves the M1 and
take us through country lanes to the ancient village of Repton, where he will
guide us through its long history; Excava­tions have been conducted here for
the last 10 summers and are going on this August under Martin Biddle, who will
show us the site and tell about their discoveries. If you wish to go on this
outing please com­plete the enclosed form and return it to me with your cheque
as soon as possible.

Sat/Sun Sep 15/16.
The Lincoln weekend has proved very popular with toomany for
minibuses, so we are having a coach to take and fetch us. The whole
weekend will be spent in Lincoln itself so transport won't be needed there. We
have filled the original small hotel and spread to two others. There is no
waiting list, so any late-comers please ring me in case there are
cancellations.

Sat Oct 6. Minimart (don't forget the
change of date). We are getting off to a good start collecting goods. Several
members are moving house and HADAS is benefitting from their overflow. Please
start turning out now and ring me or Christine Arnott (455 2751) when you have
anything ready: unwanted gifts and toilet goods, clothing for all ages and
sizes, all sorts of bric-a-brac, pictures, crockery, household utensils,
curtains, linens, toys and games. If in doubt, ring and ask us. If you are
making jams or pickles, make an extra jar for Brigid on the food stall. Thanks,
everyone, you always do a grand job and I am sure you will do it again!
Excellent ploughman's lunches on the day, as usual.

DOROTHY NEWBURY (203 0950)

LIGHT RELIEF
AT WEST HEATH by SHEILA,WOODWARD

The 6½ week
dig at West Heath, due to end on July 31, has been blessed for the most part
with dry, sunny weather and, in true British style, some of us have been
complaining about the heat! In fact the site is a very pleasant place in which
to spend a summer's day.

HADAS
members have responded well to our call for volunteers and to date over 50 have
taken part in the dig. We are particularly grateful to those who have been able
to give us regular help for several days each week. Special thanks are also due
to our surveyor, Barrie Martin, who helped us to lay out the trenches and to
Dan Lampert who, with our extra­mural students, carried out a contour survey of
the site.

The site is
being dug in one-metre squares and 17 squares are at present open. The flint
flakes and burnt stones so familiar to all West diggers are being found, but it
is too early yet to make any general assessment of these finds. Both dry and
wet sieving are being operated. We have received several compliments from
members of the public on the neatness of our trenches. However, it was rather
disconcerting to hear one lady observe to her husband: 'Isn't it amazing, after
all these years, how wonderfully preserved those steps are?' and to be asked by
another whether we were landscaping the Heath and making a series of steps down
to the Leg of Mutton pond!

Other
comments and questions we have cherished include 'Are you the sketching party
from Westfield College?' 'Have you found Robin Hood?' and a dire warning
against crossing ley lines for fear of incurring the wrath of the Druids. It
was a 5-year-old who administered the Coup-de-grace with a dismissive 'I know
all about the Stone Age. We've read the book at school and we've finished it.'

Joking
apart, it's pleasant to have so much public interest and support. Two school
parties have had a conducted tour of the site, and other visitors have included
GLC Area Manager Malcolm Craig, members of the GLC staff and Mark Newcomer and
some of his post-graduate students from the Institute of Archaeology. It was
also delightful to welcome Dr Joyce Roberts, our 'resident botanist' of the
earlier dig, who was on a fleeting visit to London from her Berwick home.

A
final story: a party of 9-year-olds, gazing at our showcase flints, were told
that they might find something similar if they looked carefully further up the
Heath. 'Like this, you mean?' asked one little lad, casually pulling a core
from the ground outside the fence!

AND WEST HEATH - THROUGH OTHER EYES

One
of the school parties which Sheila mentions above was of 8 and 9-year-olds from
the Hall School. They represented The Hall Express, the school's wall
newspaper. Afterwards we saw some of the reports filed by those budding
journalists. Here are a few: the spelling is original (in more than one
sense!):

From
reporter Andrew Jackson: On Wednesday I went with the newspaper group to
a dig where there trying to find out the way people lived in the ice age. I am
not quite shure wereabouts it is but I do now that it is nere Hamstead. It is
in an inclosher and there is string round all 'the trenches so that you will
not spoil the spicel layers. They dig in layers so not to miss anything and
after that sieve it all once in a big sieve once in a medium sieve and once in
a small sieve and then they put the remaining stuff in some water if any of the
flint is covered in earth.

Reported
by E Bell: On Wednesday June 27 the Hall Express went to Hampstead Heath
to see an archaeological dig made by Hendon & District Archaeological
Society.

The Site was about
30' feet long and 30ft wide. The archaeologists were studying so carefully, but
it looked as if they were looking for some mysterious treasure But to them it
probably seemed as if flint was treasure. We were shown a box full of flint
tools and then she showed us some newly dug up tools which someone was
studying. Out of the whole 30 foot their were 2 diches each going down down
like stairs. Each person who was digging dug very carefully with a very small
trowel. They have this small trowel so they don't miss some flint. They put it
in a square sieve and pour the soil into the seive and the flint is left in the
seive; but if the flint is dirty it is nut into a bucket and washed.

And by Ben Slater:
We went to the Archaeologist dig. They had not dug f. r down threw the sand and
stones. They started Digging in 1976 and ended at 198. They found quiet a lot
of stones on the surface outside the area. When they dig stones up they put
them in a bucket and tip it out in the sive and strain it. The area they are
diging was lived in about 6000 years ago. The people who lived there used to
make tiny tools from small pieces of flint. They used to live in
small hollows.

The reporters’ stories were accompanied by graphic
drawings which alas we can’t reproduce. But I’m darned if I’d like to meet on a
dark the kind of rampant , Mesolithic West heather a Hall school Journalist
portrays, bearded, starko and stone axe in hand!

COMMITTEE CORNER

At its July meeting the Committee welcomed a new
colleague - MichaelPurton, elected at the AGM; Another pleasant duty
was to pass a vote of thanksto our Hon. Auditor, Ron Penney,
and to agree to send him a small token of our appreciation for his help, always
most willingly given.

Phyllis
Fletcher retorted that membership is keeping up well this year with 1983. To
July, 272 members had paid their subscriptions. That includes several new
members enrolled as a result of West Heath, However, Phyllis still has over a
hundred names on her 'unrenewed' list, and would dearly like to see it grow
smaller.

The Committee has been asked to investigate the
possibility of life membership, so the Hon. Treasurer is looking into the
actuarial implications and seeing what action would be necessary under our
constitution.

Some
members with long memories may recall that back in 1980 a young mannamed
Steve Herman (who was for a time a member of HADAS) began, with funding from
the GLC and encouragement from the Borough of Barnet, to make a film on the
early history of the area, which he called Barnet before Domesday. A lot
of his material came from HADAS People and HADAS digs. So long, however, has
been the film's gestation that everyone had almost forgotten it. Mr. Herman has
now surfaced again and hopes the film may be ready for showing this summer.

The Society was recently asked to trace the whereabouts
of a Victorianhorsetrough which used to stand at the
corner of Wellgarth and North End Roads, in Golders Green. In fact the Research
Committee of the mid-1970s had
followed the tribulations of that particular trough quite carefully. It had
been removed by the Borough Engineer's department for safe-keeping while flats
were built on the corner site. The entrance-- through which large
lorries constantly delivered bricks, stone, cement, etc - was beside the trough
and the chances of it being knocked about were considerable. At the time the
Borough Engineer informed HADAS that it would be kept safely at Summers Lane
depot until it could be reinstated: so we are now going into a huddle with the
Borough Engineer about it.

The
Committee heard a report on the continuing work (now mainly administrative)
-which will, in due course, result in the first West Heath report. : The
virtually complete text (over 250 pages) has been typed: only the final summary
- into which it may be possible to put a TL dating as a finishing touch -
remains to be done. Work is also well advanced on the illustrations; and a Plan
is under way to raise grants from as many interested sources as possible
towards the cost of publication, which we hope will be undertaken by LAMAS,
either as part of the Transactions or as one of their Special Papers.

Members willrecall that Elizabeth Sanderson,
our site-watching co-ordinator, had to give up that work a couple of
months ago. Christine Arnott and John Enderby have now agreed to share the job
between them. The fact that John has a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the
layout of the Borough will be a great advantage. No doubt as soon as they get
into their stride there will be reports from them in the Newsletter.

Advance notice was given that our neighbours in
Hampstead propose to celebrate their millennium in 1986. They base their1000 years of history of Westminster Abbey Charter which defined Hampstead in
986. We look forward to
hearing more about their celebrations.The
Committee has arranged, to relieve our hard-pressed publications secretary,
Pete Griffiths, of some of his workload.
Joyce Slatter has kindly agreed to take charge of dealing with book
orders, either from members or non-members. Should you want to buy any
publications, please get in touch with her at 5 Sentinel House, Sentinel
Sq, NW4 2EN (phone

202 4397).

NEW SHIRES

It may help in ordering if welist some of
the latest Shire titles. Six volumes in the Shire Archaeology series have not
yet been reviewed in the Newsletter:

Aerial
Archaeology in Britain by D N Riley

Archaeology
of Gardens by Christopher Taylor

The
Gods of the Roman Empire by Miranda J Green

Greek
Coinage by N K Rutter

Post-medieval
Pottery 1650-1800 by Jo Draper

Roman
Forts in Britain by D J Breeze.

These cost
£1.95 each. Such names as Chris Taylor, Miranda Green and J D Breeze are
themselves a guarantee of a well-handled subject. In the Shire Album series “Clay Tobacco Pipes”, by Eric G Ayto,
originally publishedin 1979 (and reviewed in the Newsletter) has
just been reprinted at 95p it is a
good buy.

GLASS AND GOLDSMITHS

The
Newsletter has mentioned before now the remarkable find of coloured enamelled
glass made at Foster Lane in the City a couple of years ago. Some fifty
fragments were found, probably of early 14c date. These have now been pieced
togetheras far as is possible, in the Museum of London's
Conservation department, anda fascinating small exhibit has been
mounted. Next time you are in the Museum, do have a look at it - it is to the
left of the bookstall.

Enamel is
coloured glass which fuses at a lower temperature than Ordinary glass.
Ground up, it can be applied like paint to a glass vessel and then fired to fix
it permanently. The technique was in use in Syria well before it got to Europe,
but certainly by 1300 enamelled glass was being made in Venice.

The site on
which the glass was found, in Foster Lane, is just south of Goldsmiths Hall.
There is documentary evidence that the area, at the west end of Cheapside, was
a centre of goldsmithing from certainly the early 1200s. It was rich in rubbish
and cess-pits, and in one of the latter - a square, chalk-lined pit -
accompanied by domestic pottery and fragments of crucibles the glass was found.
It was an unexpected find among what appeared to be mostly household rubbish.

The glass comprises
parts of at least six beakers, each up to 5 in. or so in height, decorated with
figures of saints and a horseman, orna­mental foliage, heraldic designs and
inscriptions, in red, blue, yellow and other bright colours. When whole, they
must have looked spectacular. The vivid colours like blue and red have been
applied to the back of the glass, while the white outlines and the inscriptions
are applied to the front. It is suggested that this may have been a device to
prevent the colours running in the furnace.

One of the
Latin inscriptions is 'MAGISTER. BA ...' while on the rim of a beaker is
'SBARTOLOMEUSFE ...' (probably ...s Bartolomeus fecit‑) ‘Bartholomew made me’ It
is interesting - and perhaps significant - that medieval Venetian records show
a Bartholomew working there as a painter of glass between 1290-1325.

How did such expensive and luxurious objects come to thrown in quantity
into a cesspit? The Museum experts advance two possible theories. Oneis
that decorated drinking glasses were at this time often fitted into ornamental
gold or silver bases, and that was goldsmiths' work. -Were the
goldsmiths doingthat, was there a disaster in the workshop and did
the glasses have to be jettisoned? the other suggestion is that the owner
decided to realise the value of the bullion mounts and sent the glasses to have
their bases removed!

CORNWALL CONFERENCE by
BRIAN WRIGLEY

After the somewhat unenthusiastic - even critical - references in the
Newsletter to the Prehistoric Society's Spring Conference in London, it is a
pleasure to be able to report that the Summer Conference, held from May 26 to June
2, was a most enjoyable and instructive event. There were lively and interesting
lectures and splendidly organised field trips to fascinating and famous sites with
guides (mostly Nicholas Johnson and Henrietta Quinnell) who had tremendous
stores of information - and also the ability to project a learned discourse in
voices that could be heard from one side of a field to the other.

Cornwall is of course rich in prehistoric sites. The message that came
over to us, however; was that the problem for, Cornish archaeology is that the
whole landscape, with -its routes and field boundaries of immemor­ial
antiquity, is almost one vast archaeological site from sea to sea, with all the
attendant, ever-present problems of priorities in preservation. Currently, we
gathered, concentration is on mapping and. recording before the present form of
the landscape disappears under changed methods of farming.

There was again a good representation of HADAS members. They must indeed
have formed something like a sixth of the whole party.

POVERTY IN LONDON

The London Topographical/Society. has produced for its members another of
its splendid annual offerings. This time it is a reproductionof Charles Booth's map
of London poverty, first published in 1889-1.

The map is
in four 21"x25" sheets in 7 colours. The colours are the key element.
Booth's system was to use each colour to show streets according to the !general
condition of the inhabitants:' starting with' black .('lowest class. Vicious,
semi-criminal') through shades of blue, purple and red to yellow ('Upper-middle
and upper classes. Wealthy').

The maps: are introducedby Professor. David Reeder of Leicester
University, there.is.a biographical note on Charles Booth, a list of
further reading and a note about the records on which Booth's survey was
founded -.392 notebooks and 55 volumes of house-to-house surveys and 6 boxes of 1:2500 OS map hand coloured. These
are lodged in the British

Library of Political and Economic Science at the
London School of Economics. You can consult them by 'Making an appointment with
the archivist The collection is described as being 'briefly and rather
inadequate­ly' listed, but it is said to be a quarry that is full of potential
nuggets for researchers.

The main aim
of the LondonTopographical Society is to assist the study and
appreciation of London's history and topography by making available facsimile
maps, plans and views. Its members receive the annual publication free each
year, and can buy any extra productions at a 25% discount. Gels among past
annual publications include Thomas Milne's 1800 Land Use map of London and its
environs, in 6 sheets; and the 1810 Rheinbeck Panorama of London.

The LTS subscription is only £5 a year, so you get some real bargains.
Non-members, for instance, who want to buy the Booth maps will pay £12.50 for
them anyone who would like to join LTS should write to the Member­ship
Secretary, Trevor Ford, 59 Gladesmore Rd, London N15).

HADAS has an especially soft spot for LTS because a HADAS member, Dr
Ann Saunders, is the Hon Editor and therefore responsible for its magni­ficent
publications. 1984 is quite a year for Dr Saunders. As well as producing the
Booth maps for LTS, she has had her fine book, The Art and Architecture
of London, published by Phaidon.

AUTUMNCLASSES.

As the Newsletter went to press the list of the University's extra­mural
courses arrived; so did the HGS Institute's 1984-5 prospectus. Here are details
of a few local courses which might interest members:

There are central courses, mostly at the Institute of Archaeology, in
all years of the Diploma in Archaeology; and continuing central post-diploma
courses on animal bones, human skeletal remains and plant remains.

And of course, as the Newsletter mentioned last month, it will be
possible this autumn to start the first year of the Certificate in Field
Archaeology locally, at the HGS Institute. Tony Legge will take the pre­history
of SE England from 2-4 pm.Thurs, starting Sept 27, at the Quaker Meeting.
House, Central Square, NW11.

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings -
whose secretary, you may remember, is HADAS member Philip Venning - has
recently launched a Barns Campaign. Part of this is described as a Domesday
Survey of every barn in England and Wales, built of traditional materials,
whether still in agricultural use or converted.'

The SPAB is calling for volunteers to visit all barnsin their local parish and to fill in a simple questionnaire of some25
orsoquestions. It has invited HADAS to take
responsibility for dealing with the parishes in the Borough of Barnet, and we
would like to accept - provided enough members are prepared to volunteer to
help.

It should not be too tough a job because; alas, LBB has
already lost most of its old barns. If we could find 4 or Volunteers, particularly
in the northern part of the Borough; prepared to visit two or three Thithe
barns each andto fill in the questionnaire, we think we could do
all that SPAB requires.

Members who would like to take part in this piece of
field work are asked to
contact Brigid Grafton Green (455 9040; or drop her a note at
88Temple Fortune Lane, NW11).

RUMOURS OF WARS

There is no doubt that attitudes
to nuclear weaponry arouse strong

Passions even in the unwarlike world of archaeology. Our note in the
last Newsletter about the new organisation, Archaeologists for Peace, produced-
immediate reactions.

First
came a letter from a member who warmly welcomed the new group. 'I've written
off for details at once,' it said.

Hot on its heels came a phone call from a member who had
almost been inspired to write saying that archaeology shouldn't be
dragged into poli­tics.' We begged her to put it in writing, but she never got
round to it. However, one of our younger members, Robert Michel, now reading
archaeology at Southampton University, who has been with us since his junior
days, did put pen to paper. He wrote:

Dear Editor,

Do archaeologists need a separate voice in the debate
on the arms race? Surely any of tour colleagues who feel sufficiently strongly
on the matter can join one of the established organisations.

I for one would be unhappy to see
archaeology as a profession/hobby dragged into the inevitably political arms
race debate. As archaeologists, our concern is with the reconstruction of man's
past through the remains recoverable from the archaeological record. Our
concern about the arms race and allied matters should be pursued in our
capacity as private individuals, and I hope archaeologists will give this new
organisation a very wide berth.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Michel

PS: Keep up the good work

NEW MEMBERS

It is some time since we listed HADAS's new members
and wished them harpy digging 7 of every kind. The following have joined the.
Society in the last few months:

One
horribly frustrated member this summer is MYFANWY STEWART. She has always been
a most staunch West Heath supporter, and this season he was to have been one of
the three 'eminences' who kept the new dig running (Margaret Maher and Sheila
Woodward being the others). Alas, with West Heath only a week old Myfanwy
pulled a hip muscle. To add insult to injury she didn't do it digging, either -
she was just lifting up a grandchild at home! She had to spend a week on her
back and then take life very slowly - and no West Heath. However, it must have
been some consolation to hear that she had passed her degree in Archaeology
this summer - with an upper 2: many congratulations.

Myfanwy's
Mum, MRS IRENE OWEN, who joined HADAS in May, has been one of the dig's keenest
supporters. She's made her way to West Heath fre­quently - and it's no
easy place to get to by public transport from. Chipp­ing Barnet. She has a
particularly neat hand for flint marking, we're told, not to mention being an
outstanding coffee-maker;

Several HADAS members took part in this year's annual
Open Week at the HGS Institute - the last under the friendly eye of JOHN
ENDERBY., who retires at the end of this month. JOYCE SLATTER, ENID HILL and
VALENTINE SHELDON, took charge. of the bookstall, selling £30 worth of books
and en­rolling new members;. while CHRISTINE ARNOTT organised an exhibit on HADAS's work. We are most grateful for their help and also for Mr Enderby's invitation to take part.

News
recently came of two former HADAS members who, for various reasons, have had to
give up membership. They will, we feel sure, be

remembered by many who worked in West Heath
Phase 1. NICOLE DOUEK took her degree in Ancient History at University College
in summer '83. She is about to start working for a PhD in September, on an
aspect of her pet subject: Ancient Egypt.

It was a
pleasure to get a letter - via the Diplomatic Bag from GILL BRAITHWAITE, who took an
archaeological degree some 4 years ago just before she was wafted, off to
Washington where her husband is No 2 at the British Embassy. She tells us she
tries desperately to keep up with what's happening in British
archaeology - but it's difficult at sucha distance; and she sends
her best wishes to all her friends in HADAS.

We
also noticed - this time in the CBA Newsletter - that another.' ex-HADAS member
is managing to keep up his archaeology. DR ERIC GRANT, of the Geography
department of Middlesex Poly, who was a HADAS member. all through the '70s, has
received a grant of £500 for an excavation in Langport, Somerset, 'to elucidate
the development of the Saxon and medieval town.'

HADAS
member on the move this summer is CELIA GOULD. She has loft Hendon after many
years to live at Winchmore Hill (at 23A Percy Rd, N21 phone 360
6129, if you would care to alter your members' list).